1. A taste map of the tongue (pictured below) appears has appeared in countless books:
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In your experience, is this map correct? Taste a few things if you need to.
I feel like this is very close to how I experience it. I could taste more of the sweet things on the tip of my tongue. The salty and the sour were more on the sides. I felt that bitter was more over the back and middle of my tongue.
2. During your next meal, after eating a few items, try them again with your nose plugged. Record your observations.
There was a subtle difference of taste when I plugged by nose when eating. Some of the tastes were not as strong as they were before I plugged by nose. I could still tell what the taste of each of the food were but I felt like they were a little bit weaker.
3. “More than meets the Mouth”
· What are the 5 tastes (according to current thought) and 2 tastes for which the jury is still out?
Sweet, sour, bitter, salty, unami are the 5 known tastes and fatty and calcium are other suggested tastes.
· Eisenstein suggests that “the wisdom of the body” leads people to prefer foods that contain the most nutrients. Consider things with a pleasant taste vs. those with a bitter taste--how might this wisdom also lead us eat things with calories and avoid those with poisons?
If wisdom of the body tells us to eat things that are more nutritious for us then our body will also tell us what things are bad for us. If something is poisonous for us, then our body should tell us that they thing that we are eating does not taste good. Our body needs calories for energy, so our body will like things that have calories in it.
· Broccoli is well known to be rich in bitter compounds. Use what you learned in this paper to explain why people could have such opposing reactions to broccoli, as demonstrated by this quote from President George H. W. Bush: “I do not like broccoli and I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli…My family is divided. For the broccoli vote out there: Barbara loves broccoli. She has tried to make me eat it. She eats it all the time herself.”
There are different receptor variants that arise that lead people to like and not like things that are bitter. The bitter receptor is most prone to genetic variability. The bitter receptor helps people to not eat toxic compounds. Our receptors evolve to detect harmful substances. Broccoli has a bitter taste, and if our receptors evolve to detect harmful toxic substances that are sensed on bitter receptors, then our body can give out a signal that this food is not good for us, so we don’t like that food.
4. Consider vision, gustation, and olfaction (you will find Powerpoint files for all three on Moodle). Which two systems are the most alike? Why?
Gustation and olfaction are 2 similar systems. Vision is different then these two because the channel is constantly open and a signal to the receptor closes the channel. Both gustation and olfaction works by having a signal bind to a receptor that then opens the channels for ions to move into the cell.
5. Describe an analogy that you could use to explain olfaction to someone outside of this class. (We encourage you to try your own analogy, but if you’re stuck, consider how it might compare to painting or music.)
Olfaction can be described as music. Just like there are many different notes on the keyboard, there are many different receptors for smell. You can have a signal at one receptor for a smell like you can hit one mote to make music. You can also play a cord, which is are certain notes that go together to make music, just like you can have a signal be sent to different receptors to produce a certain type of smell.
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